Silica-grafted ionic liquids for revealing the respective charging behaviors of cations and anions in supercapacitors

Qingyun Dou, Lingyang Liu, Bingjun Yang, Junwei Lang and Xingbin Yan ()
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Qingyun Dou: Lanzhou Institute of Chemical Physics
Lingyang Liu: Lanzhou Institute of Chemical Physics
Bingjun Yang: Lanzhou Institute of Chemical Physics
Junwei Lang: Lanzhou Institute of Chemical Physics
Xingbin Yan: Lanzhou Institute of Chemical Physics

Nature Communications, 2017, vol. 8, issue 1, 1-9

Abstract: Abstract Supercapacitors based on activated carbon electrodes and ionic liquids as electrolytes are capable of storing charge through the electrosorption of ions on porous carbons and represent important energy storage devices with high power delivery/uptake. Various computational and instrumental methods have been developed to understand the ion storage behavior, however, techniques that can probe various cations and anions of ionic liquids separately remain lacking. Here, we report an approach to monitoring cations and anions independently by using silica nanoparticle-grafted ionic liquids, in which ions attaching to silica nanoparticle cannot access activated carbon pores upon charging, whereas free counter-ions can. Aided by this strategy, conventional electrochemical characterizations allow the direct measurement of the respective capacitance contributions and acting potential windows of different ions. Moreover, coupled with electrochemical quartz crystal microbalance, this method can provide unprecedented insight into the underlying electrochemistry.

Date: 2017
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-017-02152-5

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